


Circle of Mirrors

by hafital



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-20
Updated: 2008-07-20
Packaged: 2017-10-28 04:08:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 693
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/303573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hafital/pseuds/hafital
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU during Turn Left</p>
            </blockquote>





	Circle of Mirrors

They led her to a place somewhere near the circle of mirrors, a back room in a forgotten, empty office. It had a cot and some blankets, a small hard pillow, an undraped window staring out to an alley with rubbish bins and a broken bicycle. In some ways the small cupboard offered more comfort than home did. Donna hadn’t slept alone in months.

"Will someone call my mother? They’ll worry." Donna supposed she could call them herself, but the only phone on their street belonged to the house on the corner with the young widow and her three kids always screaming or crying, and Donna just couldn't, not today.

"Of course," said the blonde woman with a look to the officer who had accompanied them. The officer saluted and left, leaving Donna alone with the unnamed woman. "Anything else you need, just ask," she said. "There'll be someone just outside. Rest. Tomorrow won’t be easy."

The woman turned to leave. "Can’t you stay?" Donna asked. She laughed a little. "First time I get a room to myself in months, and I'm begging for someone to share it with me." She couldn't say that she was scared, or that her heart felt off, like it stumbled, like it kept missing beats. She couldn’t say she worried for the dreams she would have.

The blonde woman said nothing but didn't look away, which Donna appreciated.

"Right," said Donna, turning to lie fully clothed on the cot, on her side with her back to the unfamiliar room. The woman turned the light off and closed the door and left Donna alone.

Donna might have slept, she wasn't sure. Hard to tell if the darkness she looked at was real or a dream. Hours later, minutes later, seconds, she heard a sigh, a soft whisper of footsteps. "Is that you?" she asked.

"Yeah. Sorry. Sometimes I can’t control this. You're very strong, Donna."

Donna breathed to deny it, but she rather thought the woman would say something about timelines or energy readings or being pulled across realities and Donna really couldn’t hear it anymore, she thought she might go mad. "I'm sorry," she said instead, turning to see the woman’s hair lit by the flickering of some unknown source of light that came in through the small window. Maybe stars, maybe the moon, probably a floodlight or a car’s headlights. "That must put a cramp in your plans, fading in and out like that."

The woman laughed softly. "You don’t know the half of it."

A long silence followed and Donna started to wonder if perhaps the woman had faded again, but she felt strong hands on her arm and a slight pressure, a request to move aside. Donna shifted and the woman lay next to her. They both wobbled a bit, the cot much too narrow, but they managed after a fashion. The woman’s hands brushed Donna’s hair from her face.

"Is this all right?" asked the woman, her breath against Donna's cheek.

"Yes," Donna answered with barely any sound.

Lips covered hers, gentle until Donna pulled the woman closer. It lasted far longer than Donna would have thought, moving the way kisses usually do, but slowly, with so much more hidden in the near silent gasps and the need and the way the woman held tight to Donna's hand. Donna rested her cheek against the woman's hair and wrapped her arms around her, trying not to cry for that she had seen, for the past year in Leeds. The woman held her just as strongly, maybe just as lost.

Before Donna knew what happened, the woman faded away.

~~~

In the morning the blonde woman returned and something of the knot of fear and uncertainty in the pit of Donna's stomach released and disappeared when she saw that face, that blonde hair. The woman helped Donna into the coat she needed to wear, and with a sad smile untucked Donna's hair free where it had gotten caught. The woman squeezed Donna's hand, and together they left the cupboard to face the UNIT officers who waited outside, ready to escort her to the circle of mirrors.


End file.
